Systems and methods for providing multiple simultaneous calls from the same prepaid account
AssigneeVerizon Patent and Licensing Inc.
InventorsGregory L. Mumford, Jon E. Abel, David A. Fitzgerald, Radhika Gunasekar, Anna Marie Appleby, John M. Leslein
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Prepaid services include associating a plurality of users with a prepaid services account. The account is configured to track a prepaid balance associated with the account as well as to allow at least a subset of the plurality of users associated with the account to draw down the prepaid balance at least generally at the same time. Drawing down the prepaid balance includes allocating a portion of the prepaid balance to each respective user, monitoring a provision of service, and repeating, selectively, the allocating and monitoring.
Claims20
A method, comprising:
- associating a plurality of users with a prepaid services account;
- tracking a prepaid balance associated with the account;
- drawing down the prepaid balance at least generally at the same time using at least a subset of the users, including:
- allocating a portion of the prepaid balance to each respective user;
- monitoring a provision of service;
- and
- repeating, selectively, the allocating and the monitoring.
A system comprising:
- a memory;
- and
- a processor to:
- associate a plurality of users with a prepaid services account;
- calculate a total burn rate of the prepaid services account by combining burn rates at which one or more users included in a subset of the plurality of users draw down a prepaid balance associated with the prepaid services account;
- determine a change in the subset of the plurality of users that are drawing down the prepaid balance;
- recalculate the total burn rate of the prepaid service account based on determining the change in the subset of the plurality of users that are drawing down the prepaid balance;
- determine to recharge the prepaid balance based on the total burn rate;
- and
- recharge the prepaid balance after determining to recharge the prepaid balance.
A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing instructions, the instructions comprising:
- one or more instructions that, when executed by at least one processor, cause the at least one processor to:
- associate a plurality of callers with an account;
- calculate a total burn rate of the account based on a rate at which a subset of the plurality of callers draw down a prepaid balance associated with the account;
- determine a change in the subset of the plurality of callers that are drawing down the prepaid balance;
- recalculate the total burn rate of the account based on determining the change in the subset of the plurality of callers that are drawing down the prepaid balance;
- determine that automatic recharge of the prepaid balance is allowed based on information associated with the account;
- determine, after determining that automatic recharge of the prepaid balance is allowed, to recharge the prepaid balance based on the total burn rate;
- and
- recharge the prepaid balance after determining to recharge the prepaid balance.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.